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Saturday, February 23, 2013

Black History Month: The Lesson We have Missed

We are now in the middle of celebrating another Black
History Month, and again the failures and achievements of the black struggle are
discussed and debated in almost all arenas. These debates are waged between people some describe as Traditionalists, Fence-Sitters and Dissenters. However, despite these debates and the category one may be placed in, have we neglected an important lesson that for years has been staring us in the face? I believe we have.

One aspect of the black experience that is certain to capture the center
of these discussions is the black religion, or more correctly, the black church. One is certain to hear the statement, “Religion has always been a part of Black life in both
Africa and the U.S” (Karenga, 1993), made constantly. This statement is something of a mantra used by many people of color as
they defend the continuing need for religion as a viable institution in the
Black community.Indeed, as one looks
back through antiquity, the many uncertainties that plagued our ancestors
explained why God and what became known as religion may have been needed. Thus,
in this context, God and religion seem, as supported by a huge body of evidence, to have been created by early humans
in an attempt to calm their fears.

The statement that religion has always been a part of the
black experience both personally and collectively is indeed a true one. Not only to black life in Africa and the United States, but also to black life in Central and South America and the Caribbean.

In this
essay, however, I am not interested in religion as a personal influence. I
believe that every individual has his or her right to worship whomever or whatever
he or she wants, and for their rights I will certainly defend. My concern here
lies in religion as an institution, around which people collectively form their
identity. This I believe is harmful to the collective harmony of a society,
since a society may not be homogenous in all respects.

Nowhere else has a people’s identity been more tied to
religion than in the black world?In the
United States, for example,
“92% of African Americans identified themselves as Christians” – (Hutchinson, 2011). Of
course, there are the Afro-centrists who identify with the many Traditional
African Religions, the black Islamists, i.e. the Nation of Islam, the Moorish
Science Temple, etc. This level of religious adherents is also true for the
Caribbean region. Grenada’s population is identified as being 98% Christian,
for example. In the black world, theism
can be found in all forms, and not accepting one sadly places an individual in the absurd category of race traitor.

Moreover, apart from arguing that religion has always been a
part of the black experience, another reason given for its continuing need is
its claimed use as a tool against oppression. From the African continent to the Americas our ancestors
engaged in struggles against the European colonizers, and in their struggles,
religion certainly played a role. In Haiti, for instance, the Vodoun religion played
a significant part in the Haitians’ struggle for freedom. The Black Church
in the United States
also played a significant role in the struggles of African Americans against
white discrimination. Here, however, is what I think is worthy to note, neither
religion itself nor its God/gods or deities were responsible for the success in
these human struggles. Instead, these
religions simple provided a safe space and community from which
revolutionaries were protected as they carryout their work. The fact is, “It was the human being who did the work,”
(Lewis, 2012).

With this understanding, I believe that throughout the
continuing struggle for black liberation, self-identity, sociopolitical and
socioeconomic equality, we, the black population, has missed a noteworthy
lesson. This lesson, despite being virtually ignored, has been significant to
the success of the black struggle.

To elucidate what I am talking about here, I am pointing to the
Marcus Garvey Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), as a case in
point. The UNIA I believe presents us with an obvious, and maybe the best,
picture of my argument. No, I am not asking that we create today a UNIA type
organization. There is I believe no real benefit to racially homogeneous type
organization in a multicultural world. We are living in a global village, where
we are interconnected in diverse ways. However, I am arguing that there is an
intrinsic feature to the movement that allowed it to achieve the successes it
did; the largest mass movement in African history. Indeed, “the Universal Negro
Improvement Association was the greatest and strongest movement ever started
among Negroes” (UCLA African Studies Center).

Even though Marcus Garvey was, to all accounts, a
religious (Christian) man, and placed his liberation philosophy within a god-based
theistic framework, adopting the motto "One God! One Aim! One Destiny!”
the movement itself embodied a feature of secularism. In that I mean, Marcus
Garvey, unlike the leaders of the many black movements that followed, did not
promote his movement as a religion. Marcus Garvey is recorded as saying that he
had “no time to teach religion” (UCLA African Studies Center). In fact, the
defeat of the UNIA’s Muslims members in 1922 and its Christians members in 1924
from trying to make Islam and Christianity the official religions of the
movement speaks to the intent of building a movement that embodied a secular
characteristic. Despite Garvey’s assertion that black people should view God as
being black, the UNIA members did not have to drop their religion to become a
member. As Garvey said, “our God has no color, yet it is human to see
everything through one’s own spectacles,” (Garvey, 1986).

There is no doubt that the massive growth and success of the
UNIA, despite how short lived it may have been, was a result of its secular
nature. If one surveys the black experience after the UNIA, we will notice that
all the liberation movements that followed, failed to eclipse the UNIA although
possessing almost the very same philosophy and goals; for example, Elijah
Muhammad and the Nation of Islam (NOI), Noble Drew Ali and the Moorish Science
Temple of America, Dr. Malachi Z York El and the Nuwaubian nation, and even the
Black Churches that feature Liberation Theology as their manifesto. The problem
here is certainly religion/theism as an identity for the community.

As I have mention before, we are a diverse group of people. This truth cannot be denied. Thus, designing a
community/society with a specific religious ideology as its identity, be it Euro-centric or
Afro-centric is unhealthy for us and the world in general. Indeed, many of us are believers, but some of us are
not. Some of us are heterosexuals; some of us are not, and list of diversities goes on. We are certainly “at the crossroads of freedom and equality.” As a result, I ask
that as we reminisce on our pass struggles, achievements, and debate on how we
should move forward, remember that an unprejudiced society that embraces and
accommodates all human beings, regardless of sexual orientation, religious
belief, non-belief, color, sex, etc, is most certainly the best recipe for success,
and only a secular humanist society can, I believe, accommodate such a vision. This,
I believe, is the lesson we have missed.

7 comments:

If we spent half as much time teaching black/african/ etc history from around world as we study white bible. We as people would be better off and our kidswould truly understand our struggle. I think our direct refusal to accept and own our pass is major reason why our white brothers and sisters can continue to divide us.

Interesting take on black culture and religion. Personally, I never thought of race being tied to a specific faith (other than Jews, I suppose.) Where I live, blacks trend southern baptist...I obviously live in the south of the US.

Certainly unlike the Jews. However, in the black community religion is viewed as an intricate part of identity. This is true regardless if one is a believer in Christianity, Islam or "Traditional African Religion." For those of us who refuse to identify as religious, this is clear. In the black American community (and that is also true of the Caribbean community) one cannot not believe. One is expected, as a black person, to be a believer in some form of a theistic belief, and to be otherwise, is view in the community as a form of abnormality. One's social circle is nourished or disappears based on one's church attendance. So, despite being unlike the Jews, as a black person, one's identity is expected, in the wider black community, to be tied to a religious (mostly the Abrahamic religions) faith.

Being in the south (AKA the Bible belt), I know that religion (Christianity) is strongly associated with one's life. I know, I live in Georgia for six years... You are right, location does determine how religion plays in one's life... be it white people or black people... However, among black people, regional location is a small factor, it does not matter where black people live, to be black is to be religious.

As a black woman, it seems as though anytime I've met another black woman in a friendly atmosphere I am automatically asked which church do I attend. When I reply I do not attend church the reaction is cold as ice, or automatically brought to a quick conclusion on their part as if there is nothing else to discuss. I feel that some black women sometimes come across as being one dimensional. There are boundless subjects that can be explored, furthermore I feel as though most a severely narrow-minded in assuming that because I am black and female like them, so I should automatically believe in what they believe, as I could be practicing another religion such as Buddhism, Jainism by choice, or any other faith or none at all. I personally strongly feel that Christianity is a slave religion and that black women on a whole need to wake up and stop being so self-righteous and judgmental defending what essentially are the invisible chains that keep us from true liberation. Can I get an Amen??!!